Without Consequence
Page 9
“Okay,” I muttered and leaned against her body for support, ha, yeah, right. Holly held a cloth over his nose as blood spread across it. “Damn, sorry, man.”
“Paybacks a bitch, don’t forget that you little fucker,” and pushed my hand away. “Doc,” he turned toward her, “You got to tell him what’s up,” and turned back to me, “We’re gonna have to pick up, Gage from school,” he stated.
Then I was told why they called me and knew why I needed to pick up my little brother from school.
Yes, life would never be the same.
~~~
Darkness surrounded me as I held Gage while he sobbed, our old man on the other side of him, tight-lipped and expressionless. My little brother’s puffy face burrowed into my black t-shirt as we stood next to the casket that held our mother, Ella.
The strong desire to run off and not deal with this shitstorm festered inside me. I hated not being able to fix this and not being able to take the pain away from Gage. The fact that we would never see that sparkle that our mom always graced upon us was almost too much to bear.
My club brothers were off to the side, which pissed my dad off to no end. He, Lyle Reed, was a self-made real-estate mogul. When Gage was born, I told him he finally had the son he wanted, because I was a major disappointment to him and pretty much dead in his eyes.
No matter how hard he tried to keep my little brother from me, I fought just as hard to stay in his life. Now with our mom gone, I knew life was about to kick me in a way I’d never imagined.
All the chairs had filled up with Lyle’s business associates and some of their friends, so there wasn’t one left for me. To say my old man hated me was a colossal understatement. I’m nothing like him. We’ve never seen eye to eye on anything, except for the love we had for mom and Gage. Whom shared his seat with me, and at the tender age of ten years old, his childhood had just ended abruptly.
The Preist said his prayers and Lyle, Gage, and myself put white roses on mom’s casket. As they lowered her down to her final resting place, my life flashed before my eyes. Mind you, I was only twenty-four, but I had packed some crazy-ass living in a short life.
My mom tried to keep our family together, tried but failed. There was nothing I wanted from Lyle, he was cruel and cold, even to her, but she never let it get her down. Oh sure, mom had everything that she could’ve wished for, monetarily. But she had her own bedroom and separate friends because dear ole’ dad wanted it that way.
He was always too busy, even too busy for my grade eight graduation, too busy to play catch with me, too busy to nurture my mother’s dreams, and way too busy to be at the hospital the day Gage was born. Hell, I’m pretty sure it was about a week before he finally met his newborn son.
As I said, mean, ruthless, and down-right nasty, all the makings of a great businessman but not so great for a family man.
~~~
Once mom was lowered into the ground, everyone stood and began to walk toward their cars. My brothers waited for me to lead the way, my prez and friend Van went over to Lyle and gave him his condolences from the club. I knew he’d offer help, but my old man would never take a handout, especially from someone he considered lower class than himself.
I had my arm around Gage’s shoulders and handed him his helmet when we reached my bike.
“You’re coming back to the house, aren’t you, Hunter?” he asked, and I nodded.
That was before Lyle came over to me and grabbed the helmet out of Gage’s hands. He stood toe to toe with me, getting in my face. Damn, if I didn’t want to take him out, but out of respect for where were, for my mom and Gage, I stood down.
“Gage is coming with me,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. He kept his voice low so as not to bring any attention to us. “Don’t come to the house, either. You are no longer welcome there. I don’t want to see or hear from you. Have I made myself clear?”
“Yeah, Lyle, fucking crystal.” I yanked the helmet from his grasp, realizing now that my little brother was sobbing uncontrollably. “It’ll be okay, Gage. Go home, I’ll text you later.” At that, he just about jumped into my arms.
“You won’t text him later because Gage no longer has a phone. I’m warning you now, Hunter, cross me, and I’ll make sure you’ll suffer a fate worse than death.”
“Like fuck, old man, haven’t we all suffered enough,” and I pushed him away from me. “We just lost mom, and all you can think about is tearing Gage and me apart? You’re one fuck of a great dad,” I chuckled and never saw it coming as his fist made contact with my chin.
Van and Holly grabbed the bastard, but I shrugged it off. There was no way I was going to stoop to his level. I had far too much love for my mom. “Let the fucker go, he’s not worth the headache,” I hugged my brother and got on my bike.
That was a pivotal moment in my life. To say that life would never be the same was not even close to what was in store for me.
Deceived
Disciples of Hell MC
Coming June 26/2020
Books by Michelle Corchis:
Claimed: Wolf Essence1 https://amzn.to/2XwwBD5
Rebel Howl https://amzn.to/2Rxi1Hw